


Stand and Deliver

by Brumeier



Series: Atlantis Medical Group [6]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medical, Babies, Community: story-works, Established Relationship, M/M, Pregnancy, Trapped In Elevator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-10 09:30:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13499230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: LJ Comment Fic for AUs prompt:Stargate Multiverse, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay, Atlantis Medical GroupIn which a winter storm wreaks havoc and Rodney gets to experience the miracle that is childbirth firsthand.





	Stand and Deliver

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the story_works [Winter Magic Challenge](https://story-works.livejournal.com/46302.html).

"No stairs today?" Teyla asked with a grin. 

Rodney slipped his coat on. "I have hours of shoveling ahead of me. No need to overdue it." 

In fact, AMG was shutting down early in deference to the deteriorating weather conditions. Emergencies were being re-routed to the hospital and everyone else had been rescheduled. 

"What are you even still doing here?" Rodney cast a critical eye on the enormous swell of his resident midwife's stomach. "I thought yesterday was your last day. Or was that someone else's baby shower I was forced to attend?" 

"I needed to finish organizing the files for Carolyn." 

Carolyn? Oh, right. The fill-in Teyla hired to cover her maternity leave. 

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. Rodney waited for Teyla to waddle inside before he followed. He was going to meet John down in Peds, and then ride with him back to Rodney's place to wait out the storm. His plan was to crank up the thermostat to help ensure they didn't feel the need to wear any clothes; naked John was his favorite John. 

"Is Kanaan picking you up? Surely you can't still fit behind the wheel." 

Rodney pushed the button for the first floor and waited impatiently for the doors to shut. Why was everything always so slow? 

"Vala is giving me a ride home." 

"In that ridiculous monster truck? Can you even climb up in that thing?" 

Teyla gave him one of her patented _don't be an ass_ looks, and the elevator began its slow descent. Luckily they didn't have far to go, because the AMG building was only -- 

The overhead lights went out and the elevator jerked to a stop. The blue safety lights came on immediately, but they weren't very bright. Rodney jabbed at the button to open the door, hoping they were close enough to a landing, but nothing happened. 

"Well, that's just wonderful." 

"I suppose it is the storm," Teyla said. She swayed in place, just enough for Rodney to notice, her hands pressed to her lower back. "Heavy snow, maybe." 

"It could be a million things," Rodney replied. He pressed the red emergency button and waited for someone to buzz in to talk to them, but no-one did. He pushed it five more times just to be sure. "Where the hell is everyone?" 

"You did shut us down," Teyla pointed out. She must've been getting nervous because she was practically hyperventilating. "And maintenance is likely clearing the walkways and parking lot." 

Rodney wasn't thrilled about being stuck in an elevator, but he was surprised that Teyla was having such a hard time with it. She was usually so unflappable. For all Rodney knew she was claustrophobic. He patted her awkwardly on the arm. 

"Don't freak out, okay? They'll have us out of here in no time." He jabbed at the call button again. 

"I am not freaking out," Telya said, sounding angrier than Rodney had ever heard her. Or maybe it was just that she was clenching her jaw. "I am in labor." 

"Oh, no you're not!" Rodney banged on the elevator doors with both hands. "Hello! Pregnant lady trapped in here!" 

Turned out he was the one losing it, because there was no way he was going to be stuck in an elevator with a woman who was ready to give birth. Obstetrics wasn't Rodney's field, but that didn't mean he didn't know how it all worked. He was a genius doctor after all. But he preferred to be the kind of doctor that kept a physical distance from other people's bodily fluids. 

"Stop that!" Teyla snapped. "Where is your cell phone?" 

"Oh." Rodney fished it out of his coat pocket. The battery was low, of course, because he was always forgetting to plug it in, but he had enough juice to call John. Just not enough service. 

_...ney? Wh...doing? ...bad..._

"John! Teyla and I are trapped in the elevator and if you don't get us out of here pretty soon we'll be three instead of two, if you get what I'm saying." 

_...can't...pho...former...in there..._

Rodney barely kept from throwing his phone in frustration. "Elevator! Get us out of the elevator!" 

The call dropped and Rodney shoved the phone back in his pocket. "Well, that was a bust. How about you?" 

Teyla was breathing heavily through her mouth. "My phone...getting fixed. Do not...have it." 

Well, of course. Wasn't that just Rodney's luck? 

"Look, it's your first baby. They take forever to be born. Just keep doing that breathing thing and clench...everything you can clench." 

Teyla looked like she was going to say something snippy in response, but then her expression rounded out into one of surprise. 

"Oh. My water just broke." 

Rodney threw up his hands in defeat. The universe was out to get him, there was no other explanation. 

"You _cannot_ go into labor, do you hear me? We don't have any drugs, or sterile anything." Rodney snapped his fingers. "Or Kanaan! You can't do this without your husband, so you need to slow things down." 

Teyla glared at him even as she did her Lamaze breathing. "I am not...in control...of this. Rodney." 

It was like something out of a sitcom, a woman giving birth in an elevator during a power outage. Rodney allowed himself a brief fantasy of John coming in through roof like Bruce Willis in _Die Hard_ , all manly and smeared with grease and accompanied by an obstetrician, but then Teyla was making really painful noises and he reminded himself that what she was going through was a Very Big Deal. 

"Okay. Let's do this. You should be moving, right?" 

Teyla nodded and Rodney offered her his arm to lean on. Together they started doing laps around the elevator, Rodney clocking the time between Teyla's contractions. It was dwindling fast. 

And then, like magic, John's voice filled the elevator and Rodney looked up before he realized it was coming from the speaker next to the emergency button. 

_Rodney? Are you and Teyla in there?_

"Yes! You have to get us out. Teyla's in labor and she's not taking the time to savor it." 

"John," Teyla panted. "Get Kanaan here." 

_We're on it. You guys hold tight, okay? The fire department is a little backed up but they'll get here._

"Well, that's just great. Thanks so much." 

_You'll be fine, Rodney_ , John said. _I promise_. 

"It's not me I'm worried about." 

Rodney and Teyla went back to making their circuits of the elevator, Teyla pausing each time she had a contraction to grunt and make other Earth-mother type noises. Rodney supposed he should be glad she wasn't screaming, because if their roles had been reversed he sure as hell would've been. He still might, actually. 

"Not how...we...planned it," Teyla panted. 

"Which means your kid is going to be as stubborn as you. Congratulations." 

In his mind, Rodney was going over everything he knew about childbirth, which admittedly wasn't much. He'd somehow managed to avoid women in labor for the entirety of his residency. Luckily Teyla knew what to do, even if her mind was a bit clouded from all the pain. 

"Feels like...crowning. You have...to...check." 

Rodney felt a little queasy, but he helped Teyla lie down on the floor with her knees bent. He took off his jacket and bundled it up to be a pillow. Showing absolutely no sign of bashfulness, Teyla hiked up her skirt and pushed her panties halfway down her legs; Rodney got them the rest of the way off before steeling himself and taking a look. 

Oh, god. Was it supposed to look like that? He'd never been more grateful to be in a relationship with a man. He'd probably never be able to look at another vagina for the rest of his life. 

"I can see the head," he reported. 

"Have to...push." 

Rodney hastily unbuttoned his dress shirt and set it aside, away from the inevitable mess that was coming. He reached around under Teyla's head and fished the little bottle of hand sanitizer out of the pocket of his jacket, applying it liberally to his hands and forearms. 

"Okay. Do your thing." _Please be a normal birth. Please be a normal birth._

Now came the screaming, although to Rodney it sounded more like a battle cry. The baby's head bulged more than retreated. Teyla planted her feet and gave another yell, and this time the baby's head slipped out of the birth canal. Rodney cradled it, his eyes wide. 

"The head is out! Holy crap!" 

He checked, but he didn't see any undue tearing of Teyla's vagina or perineum. Of course, there were still the shoulders to come. 

_EMTs are coming, guys. How are Teyla's contractions?_

"Can't talk. Baby's on its way out!" 

_What?? Vala, where the hell is Kanaan?_

"Rodney," Teyla said. 

"You're doing great! Once we get the shoulders, the rest of the baby should slide right out. Push!" 

Teyla pushed and Rodney coached, and before he knew it he was holding a little baby boy, tinged slightly blue and covered with a slick white goo. Rodney did his best to clear the gunk off the baby's face, and wished he had something to use to suction out the baby's nose. But even with no proper medical equipment the baby started to cry and wriggle. 

"It's a boy! Teyla, it's a boy!" 

Rodney wrapped the baby in his dress shirt, umbilical cord and all, and handed him to Teyla. She was exhausted and sweaty, but she smiled at her newborn son in a way that gave Rodney a lump in his throat. 

"Thank you, Rodney," Teyla said, her eyes gleaming. 

"Don't you ever do that to me again," Rodney replied, slumping against the side of the elevator.

*o*o*o* 

Everything was blanketed in a shimmering layer of snow, and even Rodney could admit it looked almost magical. It helped that he wasn't still trapped in an elevator -- a whole day has passed, in fact, during which he'd gotten to eat and sleep and show John his deep appreciation -- and that the roads had been cleared for safe driving.

They parked in the underground garage attached to the hospital and went inside to see how Teyla and the baby were doing. The fire department, with Kanaan in tow, had come just as Teyla was delivering the placenta. 

"I can't thank you enough," Kanaan said, emphatically shaking Rodney's hand. 

"You can do me a favor and put the fire department on standby if you two decide to have more babies," Rodney replied. "I never heard of a labor that progressed so quickly." 

"Would you like to hold him?" Teyla asked. She held the baby out to Rodney, who awkwardly cradled him in his arms. 

"He looks better without all the goo." In fact, he looked downright angelic, his little face relaxed in sleep. He was swaddled in a hospital-issue blanket, with a little blue cap on his head, and Rodney was overcome with a wave of unexpected affection. 

"You do nice work," John murmured in Rodney's ear, peeking over his shoulder to take a look. 

"We are calling him Torren, after Kanaan's grandfather," Teyla said. "Torren McKay Sabon." 

Rodney looked at her in surprise. "McKay?" 

"You helped bring him into this world, Rodney. Kanaan and I both agreed we wanted to honor you in this way." 

"Torren McKay," John said. "I like it." 

Rodney liked it too. He very gently kissed Torren's tiny forehead, and had the sudden urge to buy the largest, fluffiest teddy bear he could find. 

The magic of childbirth really was just that, like everyone said. Magical.

**Author's Note:**

>  **AN:** As usual, I started writing a whole different story for this challenge, but it got too big and then it got stalled. And since I've recently gotten back into my medical 'verse, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to run with a story idea I've had for quite a while. Nothing's more magical than the miracle of birth, right? ::grins::
> 
> Teyla had to give birth before the fire department came, which is why she went so quickly. I don't believe this is usually the case for first-time births. However, a friend of my mother's literally had to have the fire department on stand-by as she neared the end of each and every one of her pregnancies, because she'd have like one contraction and suddenly there'd be a baby. Which seems terrifying to me, as much as labor really sucked. 
> 
> This is somehow my third trapped-in-an-elevator story.


End file.
